Glenlivet

The Glenlivet distillery is a distillery near Ballindalloch in Moray, Scotland that produces single malt Scotch whisky. When Glenlivet was founded in 1824, it was part of a construction rush that occurred in the wake of the government reducing the cost of the license needed to legally distill Whisky in the UK. George Smith, the founder of Glenlivet, who was a farmer who rented property from the Duke of Richmond & Gordon, was one of the first distillers to step forward and enter into the process of gaining the new license. Smith had been an illegal distiller himself, but had quickly realized that he could make a far larger profit by going legitimate. By the mid 1820s his whisky had won reputation beyond the Highlands, and Andrew Usher of Edinburgh became his agent. In 1840 George Smith was able to lease another farm at Delnabo and 10 years later he leased Minmore.

J.G.Smith died in 1901 and was succeeded by his nephew, George Smith Grant, who was in turn succeeded by his son, Bill, and grandson, Russell. The distillery remained open throughout the Great Depression, an event which affected many other distilleries; it wasn’t until the Second World War that the distillery was mothballed for the first time, by Government decree. The mighty Seagram empire was divided up in 2001, with Pernod Ricard and Diageo dividing the spoils between them, with the former taking the Scotch division, renaming it Chivas Brothers. The distillery runs its own community, The Glenlivet Guardians. Membership includes access to a club room in the distillery and chances to assist in special bottlings.